Calamander Unawatuna Beach Sri Lanka’s first CarbonNeutral® Beach Resort
Unawatuna’s best known destination resort, Calamander Unawatuna Beach, took a bold green step by emphasizing its strong commitment towards reducing the hotel’s environmental impact towardsbecoming a responsible corporate citizen by achieving international recognition as a certified ‘CarbonNeutral’ Hotel.
Issued by the CarbonNeutral Company of the UK, the world’s leader in carbon offsets, and backed by The CarbonNeutral Protocol, the global standard for ensuring the integrity and quality of carbon neutral certification programmes, the CarbonNeutral® Hotel certification is an internationally accredited symbol of the total reduction to net zero of the complete carbon footprint of the hotel.
The assessment and mitigatory action plan for the hotel was developed and mapped out by The Carbon Consulting Company( CCC ),Sri Lanka’s leading provider of carbon and other corporate sustainability solutions. CCC has been at the forefront of empowering local corporates with the ability to completely and accurately measure, manage and mitigate their environmental impacts through professional consulting services coupled with a unique offering of engagement and business development tools.
Speaking on the occasion, CEO of CCC Sanith de S. Wijeyeratne stated, “Eco Tourism or Green Tourism is the fastest growing section of the global tourism market. But along with many more travellers seeking to reassure themselves that their vacations are not unnecessarily damaging the fragile eco system of the planet earth, the increasing growth of the pseudo eco hotel is a worrying phenomenon. Many establishments proclaim themselves as “Green Hotels” without even covering the basic aspects of managing their environmental impacts, all with the hope of capitalizing on this green trend. To this end, the importance of independent verification and internationally recognized certification cannot be emphasized enough. This is why we at CCC are proud to be able to partner UK’s CarbonNeutral Company in expanding their certifications to the local tourism sector”.
Mr. Ajith Weerasinghe, General Manager, Calamander Unawatuna Beach, stated that: “Calamander Unawatuna Beach is immensely proud to receive certification for its efforts to reduce its carbon footprint. This project was enthusiastically initiated by The Carbon Consulting Company who have been instrumental in creating awareness amongst all our staff regarding the hotel’s carbon footprint.
During our assessment for certification the initiatives we were already taking to reduce our environmental impact were quantified. The Chairman of The Calamander Group, Mr Roman Scott, had early on in the process of refurbishment and rebuilding, required the contractors for the hotel to install energy efficient glass and air conditioning units and use high quality materials and rebuild drains and install new plumbing. Together with existing recycling in all departments, we have a solid foundation to further reduce our carbon footprint.
As the hotel develops into the premier beach resort in the South, further initiatives will be implemented to lessen our carbon foot print and we will be actively marketing ourselves and involving our guests in simple but effective schemes to reduce the hotel’s environmental impact.”
Reinforcing its commitment toward demonstrating its sustainability, Calamander Unawatuna Beach will host the regional representative of the CarbonNeutral Company of the UK, who makes a visit to coincide with World Environment Day. The two-day visit will focus on enhancing staff and guest awareness with regards to climate change, the identification of focus areas relevant towards the sustainable tourism industry, and enhancements of guest engagement and carbon mitigation plans adopted by the hotel. The latest sustainability related projects promoted by the CarbonNeutral Company will also be a subject of discussion.
